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Q: solution chemistry ( No Answer,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: solution chemistry
Category: Science > Chemistry
Asked by: tc3147-ga
List Price: $20.00
Posted: 10 May 2006 16:39 PDT
Expires: 09 Jun 2006 16:39 PDT
Question ID: 727449
Sugar is a non-electrolyte. In Bride of Chucky 3, jennifier tilly is
taking a bath when Chucky pushes a plugged-in radio into her tub.
She's toast. However, if jennifer were bathing in a tub filled with
water and 10 pounds of sugar, would the sugar solution be sufficient
to protect her from the 120V coming in through the socket via the
radio? Would she be able to jump out of the tub before she got
electrocuted? Or could she simply continue bathing, secure in the
knowledge that the sugar water would protect her? Assume normal 
bathtub volume of water, whatever that is.
Answer  
There is no answer at this time.

Comments  
Subject: Re: solution chemistry
From: brix24-ga on 12 May 2006 22:58 PDT
 
Unfortunately, the experiment quoted is not good enough to measure the
small electrical conductance of water. The conductivity of water alone
is not enough to let the light bulb light up, but we already know that
water does conduct enough (however little) to allow electrocution.

The table for the experiment cited has a column titled "Observations."
For water, the observation is "The light bulb would not light" and for
sugar water, the observation is "The sugar water is a non-conductor."
This second observation is really a conclusion drawn from a presumed
observation, that is, the bulb did not light up with sugar water (just
as it did not light up with water). The experiment cannot distinguish
between the conductivity of water and a sugar solution. It regards
them both as non-conductors.

Water conducts because it dissociates to a very small extent to
charged particles (ions). Tap water conducts more than pure water
since it also contains small amounts of dissolved ions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conductivity
shows the conductivity of very pure water (deionized water), tap
water, and sea water.

Table sugar is not made of ions and does not add to the conductivity
of water.  At the same time, it will not make dissolved sodium ions
and chloride (or other) ions disappear; these would still be around to
conduct electricity even if sugar were added. I have not had much luck
in getting a table of the conductance of sucrose (sugar) solutions, so
I can't give exact numbers for the conductance of water versus
conductance of sucrose solutions. (There could be small changes in
conductance due to changes in dissociation of water, but I  would not
expect this to affect the conductivity of tap water appreciably.)
Subject: Re: solution chemistry
From: youssef1986-ga on 22 May 2006 07:56 PDT
 
tap water normally contains electrolytes (dissolved salts) that could
still conduct , the sugar added may decrease the conductivity of water
but i dont think so as it wont remove the Na+ and Cl-
the experiment link here is non conlusive as it uses a bulb which
might not detect low conductances to be sure the experiment u look for
should measure water conductance directly using a conductimeter

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